'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted,' 3 stars

This may sound like a silly complaint in a movie that features talking animals, penguins who fly planes and tigers who jump through a flaming hoop the size of a wedding ring, but "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" just isn't realistic enough.

The film, directed by the trio of Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon, has quite a few laughs for adults and kids, like its predecessors. And the core cast of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith returns, joined this time around by Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston and Frances McDormand. But the story, by Darnell and Noah Baumbach, defies the conventions of its own universe -- which, granted, is pretty liberal when it comes to realism.

But plot devices and developments appear out of nowhere, in a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach. It's silly, and it's lazy.

And yet, again, it's pretty funny.

Alex the lion (Stiller), Marty the zebra (Rock), Melman the giraffe (Schwimmer) and his girlfriend, Gloria the hippo (Smith), still stranded in Africa, have had enough. They're desperate to get back to the zoo in New York, where their adventures began two movies ago. So -- and here you might see a little of the manic plotting creeping in -- they swim from Africa to Monte Carlo, where the penguins are making a fortune gambling in the casinos.

Um, OK. A plan to fly back to the U.S. on a plane falls through, foiled by general ineptitude on the part of the animals and manic zeal on the part of Capt. Chantel DuBois (McDormand), an obsessive animal-control officer, whose office wall sports an array of heads of animals she's ... caught. Alex moves to No. 1 on her list of most-wanted.

Fleeing, they wind up on a circus train, trying to convince the animals on board that they, too, are circus folk as they hide from DuBois. Gia (Chastain), a jaguar, wants to take them in, but surly Russian tiger Vitaly (Cranston) doesn't trust them. Then again, he's got issues, which will be explained eventually.

In another instance of the filmmakers just throwing something out there and seeing if anyone notices, the stowaway animals buy the circus, which turns out to be dreadful in performance in Rome. Cue the inspirational Alex speech. If they can convince a rich American investor during a London show how good they are, they can make the trip to the U.S.

And suddenly, after a little practice, the circus equipment is first-rate, the skills unparalleled. It's a 3-D neon-colored explosion. Which is kind of fun to watch, but where did all this come from? Maybe I'm being too picky, but it was just too much. Let's put on a show, sure, but the upgrade is so great as to be ridiculous; this is like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney using CGI and green screens.

OK, enough complaining. The gang still has Capt. DuBois to deal with, and she will not quit without a fight. Several, in fact.

More challenging still is the decision Alex and friends have to make. Given the chance to return to living at the zoo, would they take it? ("I don't remember that wall between us," Gloria asks Melman in one of the sweeter moments in the movie. "Was it always there?") The decision is interrupted by more wham-bang action; the film never lets up.

We have gotten to know and like these characters over three movies, and most of what made us feel that way about them is still on display. Zipping from one thing to the next as it does at breakneck pace, "Madagascar 3" has a problem: It rarely slows down enough to let us really enjoy it.

From left: Gloria the Hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith), Alex the Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the Giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer), and Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) in a scene from "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted."